7 comments

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  Jon

  8 months ago

  Great post, Jennifer. I've often felt concious about what I write in my blog and share with the world, and although there's much that I cringe at were I to read it today, I feel that having the freedom to allow yourself personal expression and creativity is much more important, no matter the consequences. I'm not saying you shouldn't be careful with what you say, I simply suggest that any action you take shouldn't be at the cost of stifling your own unique view of the world. This cartoon says it better than I ever could:
  
  http://www.xkcd.com/137/
  
  I'm looking forward to tomorrow's post!
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  jayjay

  8 months ago

  Great cartoon! So very true...
  
  I'm fascinated by the neurosis of online identities - there is always a struggle between me wanting to write exactly how I am feeling (because it is me) - e.g. if I am angry about something - and worrying about it being seen by somebody and taken the wrong way. HOWEVER, I have always said that I wouldn't want to work for anybody that thought that way anyway because it would completely defeat the purpose. Who knows?
  
  I guess we are all learning about expressing ourselves - not a new concept. I think I am better online than I am offline - where I have absolutely no control sometimes! :-P
  
  - Jay Jay
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  lastyearsgirl

  8 months ago

  Interesting post, and one which I agree with. My first "blogs" were completely public, no-holds spared teenage diaries (well, this was the late '90s, who knew better??) but after being burned on those I graduated to locking everything away. It's only very recently I've been happy to see my real name attached to my public internet presence (and I'll deny all knowledge of LiveJournal), but now I'm quite pleased to be a Google hit for myself.
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  jayjay

  8 months ago

  Yeah, I hear ye!
  
  Luckily I always used to purge and delete livejournals (make them private so I can cringe) but I think of the sort of stuff I used to write, without question, because I was writing into a community of similar people. Anyone outside that community struggled to understand why you would do such a thing - but I think alot of it has to do with context.
  
  I remember an ex read my friends only blog and slagged me off for putting that sort of information online - it was never written with the intention of being public and I trusted everyone who could see it (About 4-5) - he went into my account by accident and read everything (including private entries) Drama Llama - but you are kinda asking for it if you read something that isn't intended for yourself. I would consider that sort of thing along the same lines of reading private emails.
  
  However, back to my point, I don't see anything particularly wrong about how Livejournal works (I love the ladies loo community, for example) - but it is about adopting usernames and being aware of who can read what. I avoid updating my livejournal and have done for about 3 years but I still love reading entries because I am fascinated by the support networks there. It is lovely to see a place online where people feel comfortable to seek advice and discuss things that they may not be comfortable talking about in real life.
  
  - Jay Jay
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  Andy

  8 months ago

  I've used a number of different nicks over the years for a number of different forums, social networking sites, and the like. Recently the rest have fallen away, leaving only the apparent victor, andyvglnt. It's a tag I should perhaps be more careful with.
  
  What I think is perhaps more interesting than the privacy issues thrown up by this, is the way in which facebook and the like allow you to control the privacy settings on your own page, and your own uploaded content, yet only offer limited control over your name and likeness in content uploaded by others. Users who search for my name on facebook would, ideally, only find my picture, my network, and a link to message me. As it is, they are offered links to profiles of other users who have chosen to include quotes, from conversations online or off, attributed to me, in their profiles. There is no way for me to tell, short of asking them outright, what their privacy settings are, because they're my friends so I can see their pages anyway. This offers obvious questions about the much reported practise of prospective employers scoping out the online presence of job applicants before offering them a position. I can protect myself, but it takes a group effort to offer real privacy in the connected world.
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  jayjay

  8 months ago

  You've brought up several interesting points Andy - I found that during my dissertation focus groups, one of the biggest concerns about online identity management was the ability for others to upload content on the users behalf.
  
  However, one of the biggest things is that people are thinking about it - they are organising their friends lists and restricting access to content. Which I find very interesting indeed!
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  Selina

  8 months ago

  Interesting post and very relevant to those of us involved in the Small Worlds project, as I think we are all struggling with online identities.
  
  Like you, I have work identities that are linked to my real name, and scoial/creative identities that are linked to another username but it does get confusing when the two sometimes overlap!
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